Happy Jack, SASS #20451

HALT !!! You are under arrest. (In East Germany at the time early 1970's)

Simple fix, buy an extra toolhead.

I've had a Thumlers for years but if I were buying new it would be a Rebel because of the better bearings.

ALL pesticides are organic. They contain the element carbon. Organic is just advertising hype.

In spite of all the advertising in my experience and that of those who shoot at my long range precision matches moly coated bullets are nothing but trouble. Montana Extreme makes a moly removal solvent but it is really hard to get the stuff out of a barrel. Sometimes only JB will work. Get the crap out of the barrel and shoot plain bullets. Only clean the rifle LIGHTLY when the groups grow and you will be happy with the results. There is a reason the top Black Ops Snipers do NOT ever clean their rifle bores until they won't hold 1.5MOA Then it takes about 20-50 rounds for the barrel to season again and the gun to settle down. I see some of the best shooters in the world here and they do NOT clean their guns until they quit shooting well. I have over 550 rounds on my 300WM without touching it and it is still sub MOA. Over 1500 on my 308 and the same. The old joke is true. The marines wear their guns out cleaning them, not shooting them. Do what you wish. This advise didn't cost you anything.

As mentioned Gun tote'n momas does nice stuff and if you want nice leather Galco. The Queen only uses Galco.

Lumpy, no. Will have a more info by the end of August. Another trial going on here.

I have a bit of insight into the 6.5 Creed military interest. I see plenty of 6.5's here at my long range matches. In reality the 6.5 Creed, the 260 Remington, and the 6.5X47 Lapua are all different pictures of the same thing. I have shot semi and full auto prototypes of all 3. The 6.5X47 does Not lend itself to operation in other than single shot bolt guns. The 260 Remington runs Great in both semi and full auto firearms. The Creed is VERY finicky in a gas gun and the shoulder angle can cause some problems in full auto at high rates. Mark Larue told the military to go with 260 as it runs great in semi and full auto BUT the military had developed a proprietary bullet that was too long for the case. It would work with the Creed case however. The problem is that the Creed is extremely sensitive to gas pressure and flow rate in a gas gun. Mark made a bunch of 260's for the military that ran great but the bullet issue still moved them toward the Creed. I have seen at least a dozen "home build" Creeds here, mostly done by quite competent AR owner/builderss but none run well. To my knowledge the only two major companies that have built Creeds that actually work are LaRue and JP. Mark won't build a Creed but will sell you an upper and it is on you to make it work. John sells complete rifles (I just got mine) but tells you to develop a load, and tune the gas block to make it run. Then stick with that load. It will be interesting to see if the military can be successful with the finicky Creed downrange. The biggest problems are changing ammo and running a can or not. Gas flow even with easy rounds like 7.62X51 have to be changed when a suppressor is added. With a Creed it will be even more difficult. Time will tell.

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Bgavin, there is really no serious change at Mernickle. Bob and Sherri are staying on for at least a year to make a smooth transition. The new "owners" are long time leather makers themselves and do excellent work. You don't have to order $4000 dollars worth of spots and conchos to get a great Mernickle rig. I have 2 and neither went over $600.

Mernickle, Ted Blocker, and Kirkpatric all make belt/holster rigs with the belt contoured for the female body. Look before you buy. Good leather rigs are expensive and last for many years.

Ask these questions over on the Wild Bunch wire. You will get the correct answers.

Depending on where you live in New England that rifle would be illegal.

Copper Queen and I will be there tomorrow.

What is interesting is that Speedy won most of those matches YEARS ago. He was loading his match rounds like all the rest of us Benchrest shooters. With a powder measure on the bench during the match. We didn't even weight them at all in the field. Just knew what our measure threw from a particular setting. Give or take 1/10th or so. At ranges inside 400yds. you can't tell the difference between .1 grains. Unless you are sorting all your brass by volume that sort of accuracy in powder weight is a waste of time. I just finished my 1 mile range for military sniper teams that come here and I can assure you that there are more important things than powder weight closer than .1 grains. They are, however, the only automated powder measure that will stay within .1 grains. All of the consumer ones Redding, RCBS, Pact, etc. will vary .3 grains so every charge they throw must be checked on precision rounds.